Rather than swearing fealty to a single being of power, you have made a joint pact with one or more individuals in your travels in order to support each other through your synergistic magical bonds. Such a bond might be formed as a replacement for a bond being severed with your previous deity or other powerful entity, but it is no less potent than those sources of power. Once a patron has unlocked magical and otherworldly abilities, such gifts might be limited or suppressed by the loss of a patron, but the ability to tap into external power is a permanent change a Warlock readily carries to the replacement source.
The magic of your otherworldly patron ensures you always have certain spells ready. You learn the message cantrip if you don’t already know it, and when you reach a Warlock level specified in the Power of Friendship Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.
Additionally, when you choose a spell to learn using Mystic Arcanum, the following spells are added to the list of options, as long as you meet the Warlock level requirements for the given spell level: gate, heroes’ feast, mind blank, and teleport.
| Warlock Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | ceremony, heroism |
| 3 | enhance ability, warding bond |
| 5 | haste, sending |
| 7 | locate creature, private sanctum |
| 9 | telepathic bond, teleportation circle |
You can invite willing creatures to join your pact of friendship. To do so, you can perform a special ritual for a one-hour period targeting yourself plus up to two willing creatures who remain within 10 feet of you during the entire ritual. At the end of the ritual, the targets become bonded through your Warlock magic in a Friendship Bond rite.
Creatures bonded to each other in this manner gain a +1 to all Saving Throws they make while they can see you. You also gain the ability to tap into the power of your bonded patrons. While you are within 30 feet of a bonded creature, you can expend a Pact Magic spell slot to either cast a spell the bonded creature has prepared, or to borrow a single ability they possess.
When you cast a spell in this manner, it uses the spell’s normal casting time, and the spell is considered a Warlock spell for you. You cannot use this feature if you do not have a Pact Magic spell slot available, or if the spell is a higher level than your Pact Magic is able to cast.
A borrowed ability can be any feature or trait the bonded creature possesses except for a Warlock class feature, a feature that grants the ability to learn or cast one or more spells, a feature that increases an ability score, or a feature or trait you already possess. These abilities are considered Warlock class features for you while you borrow them. Abilities that require having a prior ability to function can only be borrowed if you also have the prior ability; for example, you cannot borrow Beast Spells from a druid if you do not already possess a druid’s Wild Shape feature. Borrowed abilities with effects that scale by level act as if you are of the minimum level required for the ability; for example, borrowing a druid’s Wild Shape allows you to to take the shape of beasts with a challenge rating of ¼ or lower.
You possess a number of Friendship Bond Points equal to your Warlock level that are used to determine what abilities you can borrow. Borrowing an ability costs a number of Friendship Bond Points equal to the ability’s level requirement (minimum 1 point); for example, it costs two points to borrow a fighter’s Action Surge. You cannot borrow an ability if its level requirement exceeds your Warlock level. If you borrow a new ability and do not have sufficient free Friendship Bond Points, that ability replaces abilities of your choice that you previously borrowed and frees up spent points before spending them on the new ability. You can remove a borrowed ability at any time, which regains spent Friendship Bond Points.
The act of performing the Friendship Bond rite again ends any existing bonds previously formed and removes any abilities you borrowed from creatures who are not included as targets in the new rite.
You gain the ability to target and bond with more creatures through the Friendship Bond rite (in addition to yourself) when you reach higher Warlock levels: three creatures at 6th level, four creatures at 10th level, and five creatures at 14th level.
Members of your Friendship Bond rite gain the ability to share the load of their friends’ suffering in times of need. If a bonded creature sees another bonded creature take damage within 30 feet, as a Reaction, they can reduce the damage the target takes by half. They then take the same amount of damage the target took, which can’t be reduced in any way. Furthermore, if they currently have Resistance to a damage type, for the next minute, the target gains Resistance to that damage type, and the bonded creature loses this Resistance. If the bonded creature has more than one damage type Resistance, they choose which one to transfer.
Once a bonded creature uses this Reaction, they can’t do so again until they finish a Long Rest.
Your bond with your friends is strengthened, allowing for easier magical communication or transportation even when separated by great distances. A bonded creature can cast a Warlock spell you know of 5th level or lower to either send a telepathic message to another bonded creature (such as sending or telepathic bond) or to teleport with a bonded creature or to a destination within 10 feet of one (such as misty step or teleportation circle) without expending a spell slot or material components. Bonded creatures use your spellcasting ability modifier and Spell Save DC when casting a spell in this manner.
This feature can be used between all bonded creatures a combined number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum once), and all uses are regained after you finish a Long Rest.
The tether you share with your friends allows you to pull each other back from the brink of death. As a Magic action, a bonded creature can touch the corpse of another bonded creature who died within the past 24 hours. The dead creature returns to life with 1 Hit Point, and any levels of Exhaustion they had are removed and transferred to the creature who used this Action, who subsequently gains an additional level of Exhaustion.
After a creature is returned to life with this feature, they cannot be targeted by this feature again for the next week.